Lonestar Blood Services
Looking fairly similar to a doctor's office, Lonestar Blood Services offers a waiting area with extremely comfortable looking chairs. The receptionist station is behind a plexiglass window, and people are requested to take numbers.
Several rooms beyond the waiting area have been set up with specialized chairs that elevate lower body and legs, allowing donators to be in the proper position for blood donation. Various bags, needles, tourniquets and other medical equipment is set on small trays not far from the chairs.
Beyond the donation rooms is a small lab where blood is tested, and then stored before it is shipped to the hospital.
The night has only just begun when Wit makes his way into the clinic. He looks fairly on-edge, his eyes a bit bloodshot. He's not remotely dressed for the weather, wearing a sleeveless shirt and a pair of ripped jeans along with boots, but that looks to be the least of his problems. He bumps ahead of several people in line to get to the desk, where he approaches the receptionist. "Who do I see about donating blood?" Wit says it just loud enough that the receptionist makes with the paperwork immediately and gives him his number. Naturally, this draws mixed emotions from the vampires in line. Some of them seem aggravated, and some of them seem all the hungrier looking at him. Wit starts to scrawl down his information on the clipboard before he even plops his rump down in one of the seats. "Bollocks," he mutters, his English accent erring on the side of Cockney today.
"Hi," says a sudden warm, cheerful voice as the thin young man in the seat next to him turns slightly. A single finger reaches out to poke Wit on the arm, followed rapidly by, "Oh, wow, you're cold. You're not a vampire either, huh? You're going to get sick." This is followed by a sudden squirming and then something thick, heavy, and warm flops over Wit's shoulders - the youth's black and grey fleece hoodie. It's a random nicety and it doesn't seem focused to lead anywhere, the young man apparently satisfied that Wit will now not freeze and, thus, turning back to the likely ancient magazine he was reading beforehand.
"Wha?" Wit asks, his eyes narrowing at the boy that sits next to him. They can't be too much older or younger than one another — save for the fact that he's noticed that the other boy is a vampire. "I'm not a vampire. But I need a bit of cash, you know. So here I am." Any other day, Wit would probably be more charming and friendly. But he's been off of coke for a few weeks too long and saying that it's taking a toll on him would be a pronounced understatement. As the other boy puts his hoodie on Wit, he blinks a few times and then suddenly bursts out laughing. "That's… well… bravo. You have initiative. I can't blame you for wanting to have a warm meal." His hand flies along the paperwork as he fills things out. It's debatable if he's even really reading the form so much as just answering indiscriminately.
Theodore blinks curiously at Wit, tilting his head to the side and pointing at the line, "Hm? Thanks, but I'm not really hungry. I'm just here to pick up something for later on. I don't like to bite people. It's sort of rude." He draws his arm up to check on his watch, absentminded and curious, and then he drops his thin arm back to the armrest and shrugs one shoulder, "It's always really busy in here, you know? So I don't mind sitting down rather than waiting in the line, at least for a while." He lifts a hand to brush his fingers against his nose, his smoky violet eyes luminous and curious in his face as he returns his attention to Wit, "Need a bit of cash? You should take up being a waiter. I hear they get good tips. I was a waiter once. I fell into an entire booth of people." He winces at the memory, then peers up as a hungry looking vampire passes them, giving Wit a long eyeball, just tilting his head again, "I sometimes wonder at the wisdom of doing this all in the same place. Some of the vampires that come here aren't taking good enough care of themselves. Someone might get hurt." He says this last with a slight pout of his lips, disapproving.
Wit glances to Theodore's eyes for a long moment. "Pretty eyes. I guess those aren't contacts, are they? Most people with really clear blue eyes… or violet, they're contacts." It's muttered quietly, but it's not like the vampires in the clinic would have any trouble whatsoever hearing him. He finishes up the paper work and takes the hoodie from around his shoulders, putting it in the chair he sits in. "I'll be back in just a minute. I don't think I would make a good waiter though. I'm really clumsy." That might be something of a fib. Even in his twitchy state, he's fairly graceful, if not completely and utterly jittery. The young man takes his form up to the counter and slips it through the hole in the plexiglass that separates the receptionist from the waiting area. "Right this way," the receptionist says as Wit is lead back into a room.
About twenty minutes later, Wit comes out looking considerably worse for the wear. His skin is more pale than when he entered, and he's a tad wobbly. But there's a fresh wad of bills in his hand, which he pockets swiftly.
Theodore smiles brightly when Wit takes note of his eyes, laughing softly and nodding his head, "Yeah, they're natural. They get really dark sometimes, though." He presses a finger against his underlid, pulling it down and peering at Wit playfully. He's definitely not a very pretentious or threatening vampire, made obvious by the way he pouts a bit at Wit having to go. He shifts to his feet, picking up his jacket in the process with a huff of a sigh, "I guess I'll get in line. It's no fun sitting by myself, anyway." He waves to Wit as the other man leaves, giving him an encouraging thumbs up for absolutely no reason. He then scoots into line to wait for his turn; when Wit comes back, he's sitting with a cooler near his feet, and he rises swiftly, snatching it and his jacket back up. He moves towards the taller youth, immediately draping the hoodie around him once more and standing in front of him as he murmurs, "Here, put your arms in. You don't look so good. Come on. I'll get you something to eat. You're going to fall right over." Fuss fuss. He blinks suddenly, looking up at Wit once more, "Oh. Right. My name's Teddy."
Wit has met threatening vampires before. More times than he'd like to admit. Teddy? Seems like a tiny baby bunny with fangs. When he comes back out weakened and Teddy approaches him, he can't help but smile at the very frail looking vampire. "Huh. Thank you." He doesn't shrug the hoodie away, but instead just sort of looks at Teddy for a long moment. "Bollocks. Bollocks…" The dark-haired youth sighs and reaches up to tug the hoodie over his head. "You know how to drive a car? Mine's outside. We can take it… back to my house I guess. Or really, somewhere I can vomit in private, if you don't mind. I know, I know, I shouldn't invite strange vampires in, but you're just…" He trails off and sucks in a deep few breaths, wrapping his arm around Teddy. "Wit."
"Non-threatening and about as dangerous as a table with sharp corners?" Teddy fills in with a beaming grin, shimmying over to tuck his arm around Wit's middle and nodding emphatically, "Okay. I can drive just fine. I think your house might be best for that, but you really should eat something. It'll help you feel better - at least, that's what I understand medically." He shrugs helplessly, but he's already helping Wit out towards the door, and while he certainly looks like a cute bunny vamp, he isn't beneath giving one of those hungry vampires a dirty look for eyeballing the now weakened human. HUFF. As if. "Nice to meet you Wit. That's a cool name. Mine is actually Theodore, but it's long," Teddy continues to chat amiably as he helps the other youth out to his car.
DeWit Townhouse
Upon entering the townhouse, one is greeted with a surprisingly well-kept living room. The glossed hardwood floor is covered with a large plush gray rug, the hardwood only able to be seen at the edges of the room. The walls have been painted a subtle off-white that makes the room seem a little larger than it really is. The decoration and furniture has been kept to a bare minimal. An expensive looking wine colored sofa is pushed up against the northern most wall with a moderately sized television sitting across from it against the adjacent wall. The modern accoutrements of entertainment are there; DVD player, a few DVDs (mostly horror and comedy), a stereo, and a gaming console. An end table with a lamp is situated at one arm of the couch, providing lighting for the small room. Above the couch two stark white canvases have been hung, each of them with abstract black splotches and blots on them, making them look like some odd variation of an ink blot test. There's a thin hallway which leads to a staircase and a kitchenette. Vanilla-hued sconces light the hallway and give the place a classy touch.
The drive home is fairly uneventful, with Wit moaning and groaning, and babbling nonsense. Whatever is wrong with him goes far beyond blood loss, that's for certain. He gets out of the car and manages to make it up to the front door without Theodore's help, unlocking it.
"Mi casa es su casa, or something. Come in and make yourself at home, drink that blood… I'll be right with you." He tosses his keys lazily onto his coffee table and starts heading into the kitchen. There's a bit of a rummaging noise in the fridge before Wit finds what he wants — a cold cheeseburger that's probably days old. He starts to devour it like it's the best thing on Earth though, his eyes squinted shut in utter hunger. It doesn't take him long to demolish the burger and then start to look for something else, his hands shaking. "Thanks for not tearing my throat out, by the way. It's just occurred to me how stupid inviting a vampire into my house is, even if he does look like an itty bitty pussy cat." Wit comes up with an old carton of Chinese food that's mostly dried out — noodles and some sort of flavored pork — though that doesn't stop him from beginning to devour it hungrily.
Theodore sets the cooler down on the ground and takes out a neatly packaged pint of blood, undoing the cap as he trails along after Wit. As if it were nothing more than a juice box, the vampire sucks on the tube leading into the bag, sidling up onto the counter and sitting there comfortably. He licks his lips before grinning at Wit, laughing at what he says, "I guess that makes sense. I probably could've thrown your car… but what kind of person would I be if I was all 'rawr! nomnomnom!' all the time?" These sounds come with appropriate hand gestures, but then he's stuck watching Wit cram random cold food in his mouth. His lips purse before he whips out a cell phone, checking his watch again and speaking quickly into it. He orders a pizza, the sort that comes with a number of different kinds of meat, and hints that the tipping will be splendid if it arrives quickly. Once he's finished, he closes the cellphone and tucks it back into his pocket, something that causes him to make an amusingly awkward bit of wiggling on the counter top, "There. Warm food, right?"
Did a vampire just say 'rawr' and 'omnomnom' to Wit? It causes him to pause for a moment in his ravenous eating before he reckons that yes, that did in fact just happen. After he's finished with the Chinese food, he leans back against the counter and lets out a sigh of relief before he's realized that his new fanged friend has just ordered pizza. Suddenly, Wit lets out something of a stunted laugh. "Did you just order me pizza?" He asks with amazement. "Okay… you're way too nice for a vampire." He shakes his head a few times before throwing the empty carton in the trash and looking Teddy up and down. "You trying to fatten me up…?" The fact that there is a vampire drinking blood in his house seems to frighten Wit less than the fact that the vampire has ordered pizza, for some bizarre reason. But that may just be cokehead logic talking. He makes a 'one moment' motion with his finger before he disappears into the next room. A bit of dubious snorting comes from within the living room before he reappears, tell-tale white powder dusting his nose.
Theodore shrugs casually at the laughter, pouting all over again, "Yeah? You were eating everything on the planet you could find. I figured a pizza wouldn't hurt." There's a long, pregnant pause followed by a possible revelation, the vampire plucking at the edge of his blood bag, "Do you… not like pizza?" The idea seems to concern him intensely, but then he tilts his head back to watch Wit walk into the other room. His nose twitches, listening to the snorting, and he shakes his head, slurping on the tube that feeds blood into his mouth and waiting with those big, moony eyes for Wit to return. He points out, without much in the way of judgmentalism, "Drugs aren't good for you." That declared, he hops down off the counter and shuffles back into the living room, "Hey, what kind of video games do you have?" It seems he intends to make himself at home, like Wit said to, letting the bag dangle from his mouth as he crouches and starts going through the other youth's video games, humming thickly between droughts.
"I know they are. I have what they called in rehab 'an addictive personality'. That's where I've been. Rehab. Lot of good it did." Wit wipes his nose and moves to flop down on the couch, kicking his combat boots off and draping Theo's hoodie around him. He watches Theodore very curiously, tilting his head at the little vampire before letting out a laugh. "If you weren't drinking blood, I might call that nothing short of adorable." His accent has suddenly gone from Cockney to stiff upper lipped English rather quickly. He sits up on the couch a bit and watches Theodore curiously. "Oh, there are some shooting games, some zombie games, fighting games… I think there are a few RPGs there too, but they're my brother's — stole them from him before I left home." Wit pushes the blinds up and looks out the window for the pizza guy. He hasn't come yet, but Wit is determined to intercept him before Theodore does. Given the dubious noises that his stomach is still making, it's safe to assume he's still hungry. "I like pizza. I'll eat almost anything really. In case you hadn't guessed."
"Well, you can have some of my blood if you really want, but that'd probably make you sick," Teddy says without looking up from what he's doing, his voice a touch muffled as he still has the tube in his mouth, "And maybe it just wasn't the right rehab. Everybody's different, y'know. I tried rehab once, for blood. I almost died. It wasn't fun." He narrows his eyes contemplatively at one game, obviously hemming and hawing, before he tucks it away again and drops to his knees from the crouch. He looks over at the Englishman with those same inquisitive eyes, the light in the room making his hair look even more white than usual, accentuating the typical vampiric pallor of his skin, "…adorable?" Likely because he's well fed at the moment, a faint flush rises to Teddy's cheeks and he wags a hand dismissively at Wit. He makes a declarative noise when he finds one game, though, and promptly crawls over to put it into the game system, bouncing over to the couch and throwing himself onto it, "Here we go. I think war games are really funny. I think this is two player. Did you wanna play with me? Is that okay? I don't want to take over your house or anything." He watches Wit watch for the pizza man, grinning slowly at his back and sliding to the edge of the couch so he can lean as far as possible over the arm and try to poke the other youth in the back, "Pooooke."
Wit stifles a fit of absurd laughter at Teddy — likely because he's high for the first time in WEEKS. "I don't drink vampire blood. I have one too many addictions as it is, you know." He reaches out to ruffle Teddy's hair as the other boy drops himself on the sofa, letting out a quiet belch. Then he pauses, staring at Teddy wonderously. "How do you do rehab for blood? …What the f—" Just then the pizza man decides to knock on the door. Wit stands up and scrambles for it, taking two twenties from his pocket. "Keep the change," he says as he's opening the door and taking the pizza. As a result, a very bewildered pizza man is left pizzaless, holding two twenty dollar bills. Wit is quick to shut the door again, looking at the pizza like it's the most beautiful thing he's ever seen in his entire life. The dark-haired boy moves over to the couch and pops the box open, the steam licking his face. "Did you poke me before I got up?" He asks, before shaking his head towards the console. "You play…" Wit is about to have a very passionate love affair with his pizza.
"I don't like hurting people to live," Teddy responds simply, shrugging his shoulders and relaxing back onto the couch, heels on the very edge. He continues to suck from the tube, picking up the controller and turning on the television with the remote. He peers out at the pizza guy, then laughs a little and murmurs, "I would've paid for that. You're going to wind up having to give blood again!" He focuses on the video game next, humming under his breath and sticking out his tongue beneath the tube of the blood bag as he tries to focus. He has a hard time not being amused by the way Wit is eyeing that pizza, though, adding, voice light, "He should've brought a liter of soda, too. You might want to open the door back up befo -" Knock knock. Ahaha. He just quirks another grin and starts up the game, going back to focusing and pressing his lips together thinly against the tube in his mouth. He makes a sound of extreme disagreement when he dies, shot by an enemy sniper, and pouts actively at the game even as he is loaded back onto the map. In truth, he doesn't appear to be very good at the game, but that doesn't stop him from trying; it's funny that part of the reason he doesn't do well is an overall lack of brutality.
Wit doesn't seem to actually notice the knock on the door — not at all. "Sorry, what's that? Will you get it for me? You don't have to pay. I needed this money for a friend. I'm trying not to dip into my bank account too much…" He trails off there and starts to stuff his face with the meat lover's pizza, looking horribly blissful. "Oh /Gaaaaaaaaawd/ it's so good." This is said around a mouthful of pizza. Wit watches what's going on the television with squinted eyes, chewing at his pizza rather noisily. He evidently grows impatient in the point five seconds it's taken him to ask Teddy to answer the door and puts his box of pizza down on the end table, standing up to bolt for the door. Complimentary soda. "Thanks, mate." He says to the delivery man, winking before shutting the door again. "Pepsi!" Wit cries out before he runs back to the couch and glances to Teddy, then to the screen, still gnashing on his piece of pizza. "You have to aim for the head, you know. …No, that's the other game. But still, couldn't hurt." He opens up the soda bottle and takes a long few gulps of it — his Adam's apple bobbing as he guzzles.
Theodore sighs lamentingly as he is once again gunned down after trying to sneak his way through a building, looking aside at Wit while he eats and then opens the door, waving idly to the startled pizza guy. He wiggles his way out of his shoes and kicks them off to the side, stretching out his feet and trying all over again, "It's just a little weird. I was there for World War II, you know. I don't remember it being quite this simple." He takes the tube out of his mouth, capping it and leaving it to sit on his stomach, his lips stained a faint, glossy red from being licked. He fixates on the game after that, managing, finally, to finish the first stage with a small yelp of excitement and triumph, beaming at the television; of course, at the beginning of the next stage, he takes one to the head and huffs exasperatedly, "Maybe I should play something else."
"Hm. I have one of those games where the guy runs around and collects the coins if you like." Wit's high has worn off in the time it took him to get it, almost. Now he's starting to calm down a bit, nowhere near as manic as he was seconds before. He's still fixated upon the pizza though. He watches Theodore muddle through the video game, scrunching his nose for a moment. "World War II? Yeah, I think that it's probably a lot less hectic in video games than it was really. And Winston Churchill doesn't show up in a lot of video games, either." A strange but probably accurate observation. Wit scarfs down his piece of pizza, crust and all, before grabbing another. "So, what's your story? How long have you been in Texas?" It shifts the focus away from him, and listening allows him to omnomnom the delicious pizza.
"I used to play Sonic the Hedgehog a lot," Teddy says as he turns the game off and climbs off the couch again to change the discs out, leaving his bag of blood to gleam with cheerful crimson on the table, wobbling due to no longer being tightly packed. He searches for the less war-based game and, once put into the console, he returns to the couch, snuggling down against the cushions and shrugging casually, "Um… in Texas? About forty-five years or so. I've only been in the city for maybe sixteen, though. It was hard to stay in one place for very long before vampires came out, you know? Kind of obvious if you look nineteen for twenty years." He says this last with an easygoing grin, talking about his vampiric nature the way someone else might discuss their love of citrus. He does a fair bit better with the less violent video game, humming along with the theme song while collecting everything he can.
Wit watches Teddy as he devours his pizza, smiling a bit. "That's a long time. I've only been here… less than a year." He nods to Teddy though and listens for the moment — mostly concentrating on eating pizza. "What do you do for a living then? I think it's cool how vampires can get jobs now and they don't have to hide as much. Unless you meet one of those vampire hating arseholes." It's then that Wit realizes something — he gets one of those looks of dawning upon his face before he shakes his head back and forth. "Bollocks. I need to check on Rose and Hope tomorrow. /I've/ been an arsehole." This warrants some explanation, and thus Wit begins: "I left without telling these friends of mine. One of them was in trouble…" The way that he talks about it signifies that he feels guilty. He shakes his head again before looking down at the pizza and starting to eat again. Apparently guilt doesn't take away hunger. "Missed one," he points out, around a mouthful of pizza.
"We've actually had jobs for a long time, you know, just had to be careful. I do online research for different companies - census stuff. I can do it at home and it pays pretty well. I'm also an artist, though; I have a webcomic! It has regular comics out now, even," Teddy talks without looking away from the screen now, wiggling along with the way he tries to go, either tilting to the left or the right and squeaking when he fails to jump quite far enough or misses one of the coins. He bites his lower lip over a particularly annoying bit of maneuvering, listening curiously despite his apparent distraction, "Left where? …if they're your friends, I'm sure they'll understand, or at least forgive you. Don't feel too bad…" He huffs at the one he missed being pointed out, not annoyed with Wit so much as exasperated with himself, turning around to go back and fetch the item he missed.
"Huh." Wit says, as though he's never considered vampires having jobs before the big outing. His stomach grumbles now from being over full rather than still hungry, but he forces himself to eat the rest of his piece of pizza — a choice he will surely regret later. He takes a few long droughts of the Pepsi that the pizza man dropped off before he carries the box and two liter into the kitchen, stowing them in the refrigerator rather haphazardly. "I hope they forgive me. They needed me and I just kind of…left." Wit lets out a sigh before he drops back onto the couch next to Teddy, slinking downwards into the cushions. "A webcomic? I've read a few of those. What's yours called? I might know it." Then Wit reaches out and pokepokes at Teddy's cheek, recoiling his fingers afterward. "Warmer since you've eaten, isn't it?"
Theodore is surprised by the touch, tilting his head and blinking at Wit for a few seconds only to laugh and, suddenly, he is tumbling over Wit, flopping sideways across his lap, "Yep! I topped off, as the case may be, so I'm much warmer now. See?" He looks up at Wit, still holding the video game controller in his hands. He turns his attention back to the television without removing himself from Wit's lap, obviously not very touchy about personal space. He bends his knees and sways his feet idly back and forth while he plays, humming all over again as he leads his little avatar over cliffs and enemies, "The webcomic is called Pacifism and Vampirism. People thought it was funny before the Revelation, not based on anything real. Now they find it funny because they know what vampires can be like, and vampires just find it funny… and your friends will forgive you, I'm sure. That's just what friends do."
There is a vampire boy in Wit's lap. He stares. Just stares for a minute. Wit doesn't seem entirely sure what to do, so he gives Teddy a few tentative hair strokes. The other youth almost seems more of an attention-starved kitten than what most people would perceive as a dangerous human parasite. Slowly Wit eases Teddy onto the sofa as he stands up and stretches his arms above his head, closing his eyes faintly. "God, it's nice to be 'home'." He opens his eyes once more and looks over at Teddy, tilting his head. "I haven't heard of it, but I'll look it up online. And I hope they do, but people tend not to be very forgiving this day and age." Wit scratches his head as he stares at Teddy before reaching up to run his fingers through his hair and yawn loudly. "If I let you stay here for the night, are you going to be okay? I have a guest room. I just really need to lie down for the moment…" It's hard to tell when the last time Wit got a decent's night sleep was, given his bloodshot eyes and the way he's slumping over where he stands.
Theodore allows himself to be moved without much in the way of irritation, rolling easily out of the way and sitting on the couch upside down, legs bent over the back. He cocks his head to the side, peering up at Wit thoughtfully only to nod and shrug minutely, "So long as no sun gets to me, I'll be okay. Are there curtains and stuff? I'll sleep under the bed." He's not starved for attention so much as everything about him is friendly and casual, the warmth of his personality lacking any of the more standard awkward politeness or aggressive posturing that comes with social interactions. He is quiet for a few seconds before he grins brightly all over again, "I promise not to nibble on you in your sleep… though if you want a bed warmer, I like to snuggle!" Yes. A vampire just said the word snuggle. He's perfectly serious as well, even as he continues to play the game.
"There are curtains," Wit reassures. He then lets out a laugh. "Oh god, what a weird night." He makes a dismissive hand motion to Teddy, reaching out to ruffle the other boy's hair again as he passes him on his way to the stairs. "No nibbling. I'm not sure where I stand on the snuggling yet either. Stay as long as you like though — I normally keep nighttime hours rather than daytime hours myself. Something about the night…" He stretches his arms again before he starts up the stairs, his footsteps sounding heavier than they should as he plods up them. "Guest room is up here. So is the bathroom, but I'm betting you don't really care about that…" From the sounds that Wit's stomach is making, the bathroom may well be off-limits for a while soon.
Theodore just laughs over his hair being ruffled as well as the response to the snuggle offer, eyes tracking Wit easily enough as he crosses the room. He flops over sideways to get his legs down over the edge of the couch, resting his feet on the floor and peering at the window, "It'll be a while before the sun comes back up…" He pauses the game in order to hop to his feet, catching hold of the hem of Wit's shirt in the back as he follows along after him. He barely makes much sound at all, peering around corners like a cat and taking in the short tour. The rumbling makes him laugh again, cheerful for one of the damned, and he takes the time to peek into the guest room and make sure it will support his unnatural needs. Of course, Wit will be in a good position to kill Teddy, if he were so inclined, but the vampire is surprisingly trusting.
Wit raises a brow as Teddy follows him, though he doesn't tell him to screw off immediately. He lets out a lurching noise before he moves off into the master bedroom and collapses down onto the bed, room spinning. "Sorry, sorry. Just need a few moments." Then Wit is suddenly rather fast asleep, out like a light. Perhaps never has there been such a swift transition between awake and not awake.
